Windcrest officials blast mayoral candidate's blog

By Jeff B. Flinn, Staff Writer

Published 6:02 pm, Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Words posted on a blog by a Windcrest mayoral candidate touched off a firestorm of emotion Monday, as city officials responded harshly to accusations of “fuzzy” math and claims that money is moving “under the radar” in its finance department.

City Manager Rafael Castillo and Mayor Alan Baxter chastised blogger Mark Perry for not coming to City Hall with his concerns before launching into municipal finance officer Sarah Mangham and the city's finance department, with all its members seated in the council audience.

Later in the meeting, Perry apologized for his online comments.

Most Popular

In his blog, Perry had stated that a friend told him “he thought something was amiss with the city's financial reports.” Perry blogged that he downloaded the reports and added up revenues and expenditures for the fiscal year, concluding “this is where the math gets a little fuzzy.”

But Baxter and Castillo vehemently defended the city's staff from Perry's accusations.

“I can deal with snakes in the mailbox, I can deal with dead animals thrown into my yard, I can deal with the lies that are thrown at me. I'm a big boy,” Baxter said. “But you mess with the staff and you talk about criminal activity and shady things, that's where I draw the line.

“The lies need to stop. People think they can do all this stuff and there aren't any repercussions or consequences,” Baxter added. “Well, there will be. I was very disturbed when this was brought to my attention. It's inexcusable. It's not what leaders do.”

Perry's blog contains references to more than $2 million in discrepancies between the city's monthly reports and the city's year-to-date sums.

But Mangham walked the council through a series of reports, detailing how certain items Perry labeled as “transactions ... unaccounted for” in his blog actually included such items as $185,000 for street repairs, and $11,000 “that's the exact dollar amount of TML loan payment,” she said.

“I ask that when someone is reviewing the financials for the city, come talk to me before accusing staff of inappropriate action,” the shaken Mangham said. “Each person within the finance office has a high degree of moral ethics and professionalism. If we didn't, you wouldn't have us here.

“Comments such as the ones in Mr. Perry's blog can tarnish the reputations of each one of the staff,” she added.

Castillo, who interjected his comments prior to Mangham's retort, said when people “choose to defame the character of our city staff without cause or regard to the possible damage that could occur to the careers of our employees, I find this unacceptable.

“While we all understand the political season is upon us,” Castillo continued, “the city staff and the WEDC staff are not part of this process. Our staff is not here as a political toy, to be used as a way to gain political favor.”

Perry then took to the podium and apologized to Mangham.

“I would like to apologize to (her) or her staff who were under the impression that I am accusing them of any wrongdoing whatsoever,” Perry said. “Absolutely, that was not my intention.”

He explained how he took the monthly financials and added them together and compared them to the year-to-date column listed for the report issued for the month of July.

“The concern I have is, that some of those transactions are not routinely reported to the council except in the year-to-date column,” Perry said. “And if you're not adding up the year-to-date difference, you don't see that. That's kind of the concern I have.

“Again, I apologize profusely if I have offended any of you. That really was not my intent,” Perry said. “All I was looking at is what gets reported to the city council, and my objective is to make sure that you, as a city council, receive the most accurate, complete story of what's going on with the city finances.

Baxter then interrupted Perry's statement.

“If you truly believe that, you would have emailed everyone on city council and said, 'Look, I have an issue, and here it is,” Baxter said.

“Mayor, please wait until my six minutes is up.”

“No, I'm cutting in, Mr. Perry, because the PAC you associate yourself with is rife with inaccuracies and factual lies and quite frankly, you and that whole PAC have alienated yourself from the entire city staff, because they have looked at it, and they are very upset.

“What I advise you to do,” Baxter continued, “is take some time out and meet with Miss Mangham and sit down and understand how you do accounting.”

“I have a degree in accounting, thank you very much,” Perry replied.

“I thought it was in finance. Your bio says finance.”

“It is in finance —”

“I have a degree in finance, too, Mark, and I had to be taught accounting.”

An agitated Perry responded, “Thank you very much. I am going to go modify my blog at this particular point, and I will update it with the information Miss Mangham (gave) and I hope you will be satisfied with that,” he said, as he left the council chambers.